


Sharks Over Boys Over Flowers

by Carcharias



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Fluff and Humor, M/M, Sharks, shaaaaaaaaaaarks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-23
Updated: 2016-09-23
Packaged: 2018-08-16 19:48:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8115205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carcharias/pseuds/Carcharias
Summary: Sehun and Jongdae make poor choices at the aquarium.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Title is entirely courtesy of the lovely naegastar. 
> 
> (alt title: sea puppies)
> 
> Written for Round 4 of chenpionships over on lj.

“Jongdae.”

Jongdae burrows further underneath his blankets and turns up the volume on his laptop. 

“Jongdae!”

No good. He can still hear other, annoying, _disappointing_ things over the sound of steel on steel and pseudo medieval battle. He turns it up louder. This would be easier if he had earbuds but _no_ , Sehun—

“Oh my god, are you watching Game of Thrones _without me?_ ”

Jongdae throws a pillow at the apartment door. It hits with a decidedly unsatisfying _whump._ _Note to self,_ Jongdae thinks, _next time throw a shoe._

“Babe, look. I know you’re upset that I missed our anniversary date. Uh, and your birthday, sorta. And that dinner with your brother last month—

Stupid disappointing younger boyfriends. Jongdae burrows deeper. Only his hair is visible now. Soon, he will be a cocoon of blanket. Warm and safe and absent of letdown boys.

“—and accidentally lost your earphones. But I’ll make it up to you—

“Go away!”

“—I got tickets to the aquarium tomorrow.”

Jongdae launches off the couch and abruptly swings the door open, Sehun towering over him with his hand raised to knock again. Jongdae frowns, slouching in the doorway. “We can see the shark feeding?”

Something like intense relief floods Sehun’s face. “Yeah, of course. So you wanna go?”

“...Sure.” Jongdae feels a little bad at how Sehun sags.

“Hey, so can I come in and watch with you now or—”

Jongdae closes the door in his face.

 

 

Jongdae presses up against the plexiglass, nose squished to the smooth surface. A whitetip reef cruises elegantly past. “Hello beautiful,” he sighs.

“Jongdae.” There’s a light tug on his elbow. Jongdae hums but doesn’t look away from the glass. A pair of blacktips swoop past like sleek torpedoes and Jongdae oohs and aahs. “So pretty~”

There’s a huff and a loud sigh to his left but Jongdae ignores it in favor of moving to the next tank, a small breeding area for dogfish. There’s a section of nothing but tiny wiggly baby sharks and Jongdae is beside himself, cooing at the miniature copies of their parents and their translucent skin. “Look, Sehun!” He grabs his boyfriend and yanks him closer. “Little sea puppies! Noodles, like you.” Sehun opens his mouth but Jongdae’s already moving on to the deepwater tank.

A grey nurse shark swims lazily by. “What a lovely smile you have,” Jongdae admires. Another sigh. He ignores it again. “You’re a real looker,” Jongdae continues, following the shark a little ways down the window and away from the loud sighing. There’s a lovely zebra shark resting on the sand and Jongdae crouches down to press his face right up near it.

Sehun sighs _again,_ right in his ear, and Jongdae’s sufficiently distracted.

“Alright, what’s your problem?”

“I don’t know!” Sehun flings himself against the wall and pouts with the air of someone who knows exactly what’s his problem. “Here I am trying to be a good boyfriend and fix my mistakes and instead I have to compete with ‘sea puppies’ for your attention.”

Jongdae grins, in too good a mood to be annoyed by his boyfriend’s whining. Plus, sad Sehun isn’t any fun, so he pokes at Sehun’s stomach teasingly to see him squirm. “Well maybe you should show them who’s boss, fight them to earn my love.” Sehun rolls his eyes. “No, really! Assert your dominance over the beasts.” Jongdae flutters his eyes in a terrible attempt to be coy, but Sehun bites his lip anyway.

“Fine,” he huffs, “maybe I will then. Fight them.” He glares sullenly at the tank window, but flinches when the grey nurse shark passes by again and jerks suddenly towards the plexiglass, scraggly grin gulping.

Jongdae cracks up at the look on Sehun’s face and falls over, and Sehun laughs his weird honking laugh at his sorry ass on the ground, which just makes Jongdae laugh even harder. After Jongdae picks himself up off the floor they both turn back to the tank, fingers laced and Jongdae thinks that is that.

 

They get a somewhat late lunch at the aquarium food court, mostly at Sehun’s insistence, but Jongdae allows himself to be dragged away from the tanks when his own stomach rumbles. Besides, he’s been giving Sehun the cold shoulder for a couple of days now, and through the combination of time and adorable sea creatures Jongdae really isn’t all that upset anymore, instead honestly feeling a little guilty. Lunch is a good time to actually pay attention to his boyfriend.

Jongdae’s best intentions go to waste, however, when he realizes that the food court is near and within view of the touch pools. 

Sehun’s regaling him with his latest prank war with his roommates, and normally Jongdae would be very involved, giving pointers and cackling loudly at everyone’s misfortune. But there are sharks in that touch pool. And not just any sharks, but bonnetheads, one of the cutest sharks _ever_. And pretty spotted leopard sharks! Also rays, which are not quite sharks but still also cool. And friendly. And cute. Jongdae really, really, really wants to pet them.

“Jongdae?” Jongdae jerks his attention back to the table and their overpriced burgers. Sehun’s lip is doing that irritated pouty thing again. Oops. 

“Sorry, sorry! I was listening, I swear.” Jongdae flaps his hands at Sehun to continue. Sehun frowns, but does.

A woman yelps from over by the tide pools and Jongdae glances over to see her and presumably her date nervously reaching into the water. A small fin slices by and the guy springs back, splashing his date and causing her to yell and laugh at him.

“...so I told Jongin that Chanyeol stole all his left shoes as revenge for the Rilakkuma tentacle porn spam. He totally bought it.”

“Yeah, good job babe, very smart.” A tiny stingray flaps up eagerly over the lip of the pool towards a gleefully shrieking child. Jongdae coos around the fry in his mouth.

“Alright, that’s it." Sehun’s chair makes a loud grating sound against the floor as he stands up and Jongdae whips his head back to the table. 

“Sehun, wha—” Jongdae drops his half-eaten fry in shock as he watches Sehun stalk away from the table and out of the food court. When he realizes where Sehun is headed, he scrambles out of his seat in a panic. “Sehun, no!” he yells, drawing attention but Sehun doesn’t stop.

By the time Jongdae reaches Sehun, he’s already got one foot up on the lip of the touch pool. The only reason the horrified pool attendants don’t tackle Sehun is that Jongdae gets there first. His boyfriend may be huge but Jongdae is dense and well-practiced in taking advantage of tall people’s higher center of gravity. He slams into Sehun, latching onto his shoulders and overbalancing them both backwards onto the floor.

“Get off!” Sehun thrashes, trying to throw Jongdae off, but Jongdae brings his legs up around Sehun’s waist and clings tighter, grasping at Sehun’s flailing arms. 

“What are you _doing_?” he yells in Sehun’s ear.

“Get _off_ , I’m gonna fucking fight the sharks,” Sehun grits out, still trying to get up from off of Jongdae, attempting to roll onto his front.

“What the fuck—”

“Excuse me, sirs.” Sehun abruptly stops squirming and Jongdae looks up into the highly unamused face of a security guard. Jongdae tries to smile winningly. 

“I’m going to have to ask you to come with me.” The guard’s frown deepens, unmoved, and Jongdae makes his choice.

“Gotta catch us first!” Jongdae leaps up, yanking Sehun to his feet with him. They stumble, but then they’re off, sprinting for the exit, Jongdae cackling madly with Sehun’s hand clutched tightly in his. The guard yells, and Jongdae sees a few more guards move to the entrance to block them off but they’re too slow and Jongdae outmaneuvers them easily around a large family and a stroller. He whoops when they burst into the sunlight, darting around the ticket line and knocking over a few posts of the rope barrier. Sehun yelps in response, swearing excitedly from behind him and scandalizing several parents with children.

Jongdae notices the guards have stopped following them once they cross the street into the neighboring park, but he keeps going anyway, riding the adrenaline high and the sound of Sehun laughing. Soon enough Sehun gets his stride and his long legs pull him in front, now dragging Jongdae along behind. The light catches on his blond highlights, Jongdae’s chest is burning a little, and he feels about eighteen again.

After a few more minutes the aquarium is out of sight and Sehun slows before rolling ungracefully to flop on a shaded, grassy hill above a soccer field full of kids. Jongdae follows, landing heavily next to him and groaning.

“What...the hell,” Sehun wheezes out between pants. Jongdae giggles between his own heavy breaths.

“What, tired already? You’re getting so old, Sehunnie.” 

“I’m younger than you!” Sehun squawks, “listen to you wheezing away! Old man!” Jongdae yelps as Sehun launches himself over, smacking at his arms. Jongdae pokes Sehun in the stomach again and it turns into wrestling, trying to wiggle away from tickling fingers and Jongdae yelling about respect for elders with Sehun in a headlock. Eventually an exhausted Jongdae flops onto Sehun’s chest, triumphantly claiming it as his own. Sehun barely even whines, resigned to being pinned to the grass. 

They lie there for a while, having scared off a quieter couple canoodling on the benches nearby. The sounds of parental cheers and tinny squealing drift up from the field below and Jongdae feels himself melt into Sehun as their breathing evens out. Sehun’s fingers find their way into Jongdae's hair and Jongdae can practically feel himself purring. It’s been awhile since they cuddled like this. He's missed it. 

"Hey, Jongdae?" Jongdae hums absently, warm and too lazy to words and distracted by the rumbling Sehun's voice makes in his chest. "I, uh, really am sorry for forgetting all that stuff. It was important and I should’ve made more of an effort." Jongdae picks at a thread on Sehun’s shirt before he answers.

“And I’m sorry for being a bit of a bitch about it.” Sehun just hums, and threads his fingers a bit deeper in Jongdae’s hair. “What, no cutting remark about how I’m always a bit of a bitch?” He grins.

“Nah,” Sehun says mildly. “‘Cause that’s not true.”

Jongdae lets that sink into his skin, taken aback, teasing smirk gone. He snuggles closer, trying to escape the ball of warmth and guilt in his stomach. “You’re too good for me,” he mumbles into Sehun’s shirt.

Sehun scoffs. "That's my line." 

Jongdae whines, slightly muffled by the shirt. "But I ignored you for _days_ and--"

"--and that was one time and I probably deserved it." Sehun ignores Jongdae's mumbled protests and continues. "You've never been anything but appreciative and forgiving when I fuck up and I guess I like, took advantage." He tangles their legs a little and brings his arm up to wrap around Jongdae. "I’m sorry." He buries his nose in Jongdae's hair and squeezes, and Jongdae's heart squeezes a little, too. Mostly though he feels light. 

“I’m also sorry for trying to fight the sharks and getting us kicked out.” Jongdae laughs and sits up, propping himself over Sehun’s chest. “I can’t believe you actually tried,” he says, smacking Sehun lightly on the chest.

“You told me to!”

“I was obviously joking!” 

Sehun pouts indignantly, cheeks flushed a little pink as he mutters about mixed signals and Jongdae giggles.

“You’re such an idiot.” Jongdae leans down to kiss him softly. “Awful cute though,” he murmurs fondly, “and I bet you’d make a hot shark wrestler.” Sehun laughs against his lips.

 

 

Jongdae gets lifetime banned from the aquarium. Sehun too, but Jongdae’s the one who mopes about it. He doesn’t get mad at Sehun, though he can tell Sehun was expecting him to, already braced to grovel. But even though Jongdae didn’t make Sehun rush the tank, Jongdae _had_ been kinda rudely ignoring Sehun and he _was_ the one who decided to make a run for it instead of cooperating.

Besides, Jongdae was just finished being mad at Sehun and he missed his boyfriend. He doesn’t want to get angry again over a relatively small thing, even if sharks are his favorite and the next aquarium is four hours away.

Sehun buys Jongdae a replacement set of earbuds, takes him out to dinner and ice cream after Sehun’s classes and Jongdae gets off work. It’s all very nice and Jongdae really does have fun, enough to tease Sehun with increasingly lewd ways to eat his ice cream and laugh at how cute Sehun gets when he’s red and embarrassed. But there’s an ad for the aquarium on the subway when they’re headed home, and Jongdae can’t help the wistful sigh that escapes him.

“You okay?” Sehun wraps an arm around Jongdae’s shoulders, clinging a little. Jongdae lets himself be tucked under Sehun’s arm and wraps his own around Sehun’s waist. “I’m fine,” Jongdae smiles up at him. Sehun doesn’t look convinced but he lets it drop, and they sway with the car in relative silence until their stop.

 

 

Jongdae’s sitting on his couch watching TV while finishing his dinner and waiting for Sehun’s evening class to get out when suddenly the man himself barges in and zooms up to Jongdae. His face is flushed and he looks excited and nervous, kind of like when he actually remembers to get Jongdae a gift and he thinks it’s gonna be the either the best one ever or the worst.

“Guess what.” Jongdae raises an eyebrow and braces himself. “What?”

“I got you unbanned from the aquarium.” The grin on Sehun’s face is Jongdae’s favorite, the scrunchy crinkly one that shows all his weirdly pointed teeth but he doesn’t notice because he’s too busy tackling Sehun to the couch.

“You did?!?” Jongdae peppers kisses all over Sehun’s face, which is still crinkled up with laughter. “How?”

“Bartered for your un-banning with many hours of community service cleaning the aquarium grounds.” Sehun grins sheepishly. “About 120 hours, actually.”

Jongdae kisses Sehun hard on the mouth. 

Several long minutes later Jongdae maneuvers Sehun into his lap to watch TV, wrapping his small self around Sehun’s broad back as much as he can. He presses small kisses to Sehun’s temples with tiny murmurs of thanks and Sehun giggles, enveloped in Jongdae’s soft sweatshirt. They settle in to watch and make commentary on the bad drama, but after a while there’s a lull and Sehun speaks up, voice soft.

“I’m being a good boyfriend?” Sehun looks up at Jongdae hopefully.

“Yeah, Sehunnie,” Jongdae says, squeezing gently where his arms are looped around Sehun’s neck, “you’re doing real good.”

**Author's Note:**

> Jongdae in this is as close to self-insert as I will probably get. Expect more sharks in fic. I'm not sorry.


End file.
